This investigative journey constitutes the core of the design studio COMMUNES—LE VILLAGE SUISSE REVISITED. Travelling through the territory, we will experience its complexity and beauty.High autonomy, traditions of collective management of resources and of common property, but also high inertia to urban transformation and changes of all kinds make the Swiss commune a unique and fascinating case in the European frame. Setting the fine structures of the communes and the commons in the centre of our interest, during the seminar week we will explore a range of cases in Switzerland and in France. In these concrete and paradigmatic landscapes, we will learn about their histories and traditions (from winemaking to watchmaking); we will observe their present urban transformations (through migration or heritage protection for example); and, we will map their attributes and potentials which will form basis of our territorial and architectonic projects.